Autonomous vehicles, such as the type designed to transport passengers or cargo, for example, may be designed to autonomously navigate a computed trajectory (e.g., a computed path). One operational objective of the autonomous vehicle should be to avoid collisions with other vehicles, pedestrians or other obstacles that may be encountered during operation of the autonomous vehicle. However, the autonomous vehicle may share the road with other vehicles, pedestrians and other obstacles which may by their actions create situations that may result in a potential collision with the autonomous vehicle or otherwise threaten the safety of passengers in the autonomous vehicle. As one example, a vehicle approaching the autonomous vehicle while the autonomous vehicle is stopped at an intersection may rear-end the autonomous vehicle due to inattention of the driver of the approaching vehicle.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods to implement active safety systems in an autonomous vehicle.
Although the above-described drawings depict various examples of the invention, the invention is not limited by the depicted examples. It is to be understood that, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Also, it is understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale.